£4.6 million
Media spend in 2024 with a company where the RHS President serves as a non-executive director rose from £58,000 in 2022.
His shareholding in the parent company has not yet been disclosed in the RHS accounts.
£2 million
Spend on a Customer Relationship Managment system commissioned from a firm where a sitting RHS council member served as a director. This in 2024 when the RHS made a financial loss of over £8 million.
£9 million
Senior Staffing in 2025. Total staffing cost is £51 million
£25 k
Small nursery owners commonly nett £25,000 profit after a full year of hard toil going from show to show displaying world class plants: the previous figures are an insult to the beating heart of the industry.
£4.4 m
Conflicts of interest
Millions of pounds committed to a company where the RHS President is a Director
5,874
One star Trust Pilot reviews
The Director General deems none of them worthy of a response
161
Nurseries in the Great Pavilion in 2009
down to 45 in 2026
RHS states this is “better than ever”
RHS Indifference
For over two decades, the RHS has publicly stated that independent nurseries are
the “beating heart” of the Chelsea Flower Show. However, the data reveals a
devastating decline that contradicts the RHS’s “better than ever” narrative:
- In the last 15 years, the number of independent nurseries in the Great Pavilion has fallen from 161 to just 45.I have been present for all of those years and it is deeply saddening.
- Despite enormous efforts to engage the RHS, offering cost-neutral, expert-led initiatives to restore exhibitor numbers, my efforts have over a period of at least 15 years been met with documented deflection, professional snubs, and a “cannot-do” attitude from senior leadership.
- Major historical displays — including the Flying Scotsman (2022) and the King’s Coach (2025) — were abandoned, not due to logistical impossibility, but due to a culture of administrative obstruction and personal discourtesy.
- When after a concerted three year discussion with Clare Matterson and Keith Weed, they informed me that I couldn’t possibly see the list of exhibitors for Chelsea in 2025 as it was “confidential”. (All exhibitors get one anyway.) It was like pushing water uphill, and too difficult to deal an organisation that makes things up as they go along. I wrote a 17 page letter to Clare detailing all the nightmares we had encountered over the previous 21 years. It is telling that despite prompting by an RHS council member to reply, she took two months to do so, and then not issue one word of an apology. Sorry it seems is not in the RHS’s vocabulary. Mentally I drew a line under any further involvement with them in discussing change.
- Six months later I discovered that the RHS has over 5,000 Trust Pilot reviews at a one star level, with no responses to any. I reopened my correspondence with Clare Matterson asking why. Over a year later I still don’t know the answer other than she cannot be bothered to. A shameful approach to your clients.
